[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
13863]
7235
February 3.]
Prep Prof 6 MAR
SECTION 4.
No. 1.
Sir,
Foreign Office to India Ofice.
Foreign Office, February 3, 1911. WITH reference to the letter from this department of the 30th ultimo, respecting the transfer of the levy upon prepared opium from the Kuang Yuan office to the Canton Opium Guild, I am directed by Secretary Sir Edward Grey to trausmit to you, for the information of the Earl of Crewe, the accompanying copy of a telegram which he has received from the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, protesting against this new violation of our treaty rights and urging the necessity of prompt action on the part of His Majesty's Government.
You will recollect that, although Sir John Jordan considers that the essential illegality of the position will remain the same whether the enforcement of the tax be entrusted to the guild or left in present hands, he has nevertheless deemed it advisable to enter a protest on broad grounds against any sneh body being empowered to collect. a tax upon an article of foreign import, and it is possible that he has already informed the Government of Hong Kong of the action taken by him at Peking.
In view, however, of the instructions sent to Sir Johu Jordan on the 27th ultimo to resume negotiations with the Chinese Government, Sir E. Grey proposes, with Lord Crewe's concurrence, to telegraph to His Majesty's Minister the gist of the telegram received from the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, and to instruct him to inform the Chinese Government that the resumption of negotiations of course implies the immediate suspension of these inequitable regulations.
If Lord Crewe concurs in the above instruction, Sir J. Jordan would further be requested to inform the chamber of commerce that the Secretary of State desired him to acknowledge the receipt of their telegram, and to state that the whole question is engaging the serious attention of His Majesty's Government, and that the latter have already protested against the particular point raised by them both to the central Government and to the Viceroy at Canton.
I am, &c.
F. A. CAMPBELL.
* Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, Telegraphic, February 1, 1911.
[1897 c-4]
413
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